Nitrogen or #nitrate contamination of drinking and surface water poses serious health risks, and can result from agricultural runoff in rivers. It is often associated with algal blooms as well. Also see the topic #phosphate. ## Nitrogen: Nitrates, Nitrite, Ammonia, & Ammonium (moved from the [Common Water Contaminants page](/common-water-contaminants)) Nitrates, Nitrite, Ammonia, & Ammonium are all "fixed" forms of nitrogen available to living organisms, and represent different stages of nitrogen in the [nitrogen cycle.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_cycle) Nitrogen is a major limiting nutrient in plant growth-- when nitrates occur in large quantities in water from fertilizers, manure, or sewage runoff, they can cause algal blooms that create dead zones. Nitrates have also been linked to increased risks of [cancer, and complications with a number of diseases, including asthma](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1310926/). The EPA limits drinking water concentrations of Nitrates to 10mg/L or lower, however, health threats can occur even at those levels. Ammonia (NH3) and ammonium ion (NH4+) are related chemically by an acid / base reaction: `NH3 + H+ <=> NH4+` The equilibrium between ammonia and ammonium is pH dependent, with the two species being at the same concentration only under fairly alkaline conditions, pH = 9.25. At neutral pH, the concentration of free NH3 is less than 1% that of NH4+. Since this is the case, the concentration of ammonia is usually not significant and can be determined from the concentration of ammonium and the pH. **** ## Questions Questions can be either frequently asked questions, or "next step" challenges we're looking to solve. [questions:nitrogen] ## Activities [activities:nitrogen] ...
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Ag8n | "I hate autocorrect. It's pyrolyzing, but autocorrect thought was an error and made it paralyzing. Sorry. " | Read more » | almost 4 years ago | |||
Ag8n | "Just to give an idea of what's going on, you're paralyzing a bit of the stopper. Then burning it to see the flame and flame color. It's very simi..." | Read more » | almost 4 years ago | |||
amocorro | "@mimiss @purl - this is so neat! Definitely thought you should take a look. " | Read more » | almost 4 years ago | |||
Ag8n | "Very good work. Another possible demonstration. I worked for a pharmaceutical company. We would check the incoming stoppers to see if they had b..." | Read more » | almost 4 years ago | |||
stevie | "Yes! here's the report back on the event https://publiclab.org/notes/Delaney/05-04-2018/water-quality-testing-at-turkey-creek " | Read more » | over 6 years ago | |||
belkinsa | "Is the report ready? " | Read more » | over 6 years ago | |||
DrJohnBarrett | "I have more sophisticated instruments for water quality testing, if needed.. " | Read more » | over 6 years ago | |||
stevie | "Also, we split up the kit before the workshop. We had the students divide into groups and rotate through the testing, so everyone was able to get h..." | Read more » | over 6 years ago | |||
stevie | "Here's the page we put together to make a worksheet for students. It's from the materials in the book, but since we were doing this with 10 or so s..." | Read more » | over 6 years ago | |||
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emontoya57 | "Very inspiring nice work!!! " | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
eustatic | "very cool. good question regaring the water pressure control, I've often wondered that myself. " | Read more » | about 9 years ago | |||
liz | "FYI Public Lab, additional informal conversation on this is also happening on the WeChat app -- let us know if you want to join there " | Read more » | about 9 years ago | |||
kgradow1 | "Listed! " | Read more » | about 9 years ago |